


Semper Amare

by The_PrincessCat



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Everyone lives, Fluff, Happily Ever After, M/M, Memories, Not all trains are bad, Older Promptis Zine, Post World Of Ruin, good ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 03:35:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30082863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_PrincessCat/pseuds/The_PrincessCat
Summary: Noctis calls Prompto to an old abandoned train graveyard outside of Tenebrae. There, they drink cheap hot chocolate from old metal mugs and remember their past. After the world of Ruin, there is much to live for and much to remember. There is also only one way forward. It is a brighter day than it once was.
Relationships: Prompto Argentum/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Semper Amare

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was done for the Older Promptis Zine: Beginning of Forever.

Prompto felt the nerves dashing across his skin as he walked. It was so bad, Prompto felt like a boy in high school once more. All those stolen moments with Noctis, escaping his Princely responsibilities. It was as if this secret meeting with Noctis was going to get him a scolding from Ignis and Gladio, just like in the old days. 

There was a crunching under his boots as he walked through the vestige of a past life. Snow had fallen thickly in Tenebrae in the long night, Shiva’s tendrils reaching to preserve the Oracle’s home. Only now did the snow melt to reveal the sleeping land underneath. 

The train graveyard outside of Tenebrae brought back bad memories. Indeed, while all the trains had been scrapped and salvaged for parts over the past ten years, the last time Prompto had been on a train himself had ended in disaster. It had been the second worst moment of his life, thinking that Noctis had truly wished to never see him again. 

Prompto shook his head, pushing the tears away as he threw an arm around his chest to grab the opposite one. He was trying to comfort himself as the goosebumps prickled his skin. He felt the chill deep in his memory as he tried to press the nightmare from his mind. Even now, he could still remember the cool biting of the snow, a pain that had been nothing to the dagger that had been in his heart. 

Even seeing the husks of the trains made Prompto want to flee. What could Noctis possibly want from him, here? 

It took a long time to find his King, and when he did, he found himhim sitting in one of the old dining cars, smiling with his eyes glazed over. Prompto climbed into the car, letting a deep breath remove all signs of his nerves. The train was so familiar, it almost hurt. He could see Ignis sitting with Gladio, fresh scars burnt into his face. Those same scars still marred Ignis’s features to this day. 

“Yo, Noct. You, uh, wanted to see me?” Prompto’s eyes took in the other man. He hadn’t gotten over just how handsome he looked in his King’s outfit, black base with golds, or the way the silver crown sparkled in the silky black hair. 

“Yeah, sit down.” Noctis scooted over, patting the space beside him and Prompto joined him. The table in front of them was smashed; only half of the plywood veneered table remained. Yet, it was one of the most intact tables. 

The seat was no longer as plush and comfortable as it had been on that train ride, the seat faded and worn. Prompto had to shift in order to sit on a portion of stuffing instead of springs. The sun shone brightly overhead through a large hole that had been blasted, torn, or maybe even eroded away. It made everything look so unreal. 

“Do you remember the first time we were on a train together?” Noctis’s words sounded distant, as the man shifted to look at Prompto. His storm cloud eyes bored into the blond, making the chill he had felt vanish instantly. In its place was a soft blush over his cheeks. 

“Uh, I-” Prompto bit his lip, looking out the cracked window over Noctis’s shoulder. “Yeah. I do. That was a long time ago.”

It had been in high school, and Noctis had brought Prompto along with him to a trip his father was taking him on. Ignis and Gladio had been there, of course. It had been the first time in Prompto’s memory that he had ever left the Crown city. 

“I remember waking up in the middle of the night,” Noctis’s voice was full of a past memory, as Prompto looked back at him. A new kind of goosebumps ran over freckled limbs. “And we would sit in the dining car, this exact one if Luna is right. We would talk and giggle like we were breaking the biggest rules in all of Eos. 

“Ya know. I think my dad knew we were doing it. I definitely know Cor knew we were doing it.” Noctis chuckled, shifting to sit up straight. 

“Yeah, I do remember that.” Prompto couldn’t help the large toothless smile that spread his lips thin and made his cheeks hurt. “The crappy vending machine food and the instant hot cocoa.”

“Man, that stuff was tasty!” Noctis laughed, cracking his lips apart with a full, happy smirk. 

“Dude, Ignis hated that though.” Prompto cleared his throat and placed his forefinger and thumb to his chin as he imitated Ignis. “‘If you wished for hot chocolate, I am more than capable of better than this.’”

They both burst out laughing, the husk of metal bouncing their laughs and bringing it to life more than it had been in a decade. “Oh man. That sounds just like him!” Noctis grabbed at his side, not having laughed like that in longer than he could remember. 

“Don’t tell Iggy I said that. He’d kill me!” Prompto sat up straight, lavender blue eyes twinkling with the joke. 

They sat, smiling at each other for a while, the cool and new spring outside not able to touch them. 

“You remember where we went, right?” Noctis reached over to Prompto’s lap where his hands were folded, pulling one hand into his. 

“Dude. I will _never_ forget that!” Prompto squeezed Noctis’s hand, remembering the royal stables that they had traveled two days to get to. “First Chocobos I’d ever seen, ya know.”

“How could I forget?” Noctis chuckled, the image of Prompto running from pen to pen, the excitement filling him and making him brighter than the sun. “I’ve never seen you happier.”

“That’s a lie. I’m sure there were times we were happier.” Prompto felt his cheeks brighten under the thoughts, and he pulled his gaze away from Noctis. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Noctis moved closer, and Prompto knew that he was shifting off the padding and onto a less comfortable spring. When Prompto turned his head back to Noctis, their noses were barely separate. The blush flamed brighter across the bridge of Prompto’s nose. 

“On the ride back, I think that was one of the top ten moments of my life.” Noctis’s eyes fluttered as they held their gaze upon each other.

“No way, dude.” Prompto protested, but the fight had all but left his voice. 

“That was the first time we kissed.” Noctis’s breath tingled against Prompto’s skin, and the blond had to force himself to swallow. 

“Yeah. That was, uh, my first kiss.” Prompto admitted, the blush crawling over his ears and down his neck now, too. 

“Did I never tell you?” Noctis leaned in closer, and Prompto felt his heart catch in his throat. It had been so long since they had been close. Prompto had wondered if Noctis had wanted to continue dating when he’d come back out of the crystal. “You were my first, too.” 

Noctis leaned forward, and stole the breath away from Prompto in one chaste kiss. Just as quickly as it had happened, it was over. It took a moment for the world and the butterflies in Prompto’s stomach to settle. It made Prompto feel like it had been the first time, although that was hardly true. 

Prompto’s mind finally settled back to the here and now, and his eyes immediately found a fat plush chocobo. It was not as golden as it had once been, the fabric being old, worn, threadbare and dirty. It looked like someone had tried to restore some of the bird's former glory by sewing in two new large glassy eyes and a patch had been added to the belly where something had tried to invade the stuffing. 

“Noctis!” Prompto exclaimed, his hands grabbing the old plush, and pulling it towards himself. “Where did you find him? I thought-”

Prompto let his thought die off as he looked at his King. “It can’t be the same stuffed chocobo, can it?” 

“Well, that one would be on Ignis. He says he pulled it out of the wreckage of your old house in Insomnia.” Noctis leaned back, tossing his arms over the back of the booth. “We tried to restore him, but-” Noctis shrugged lazily, seeming to take in Prompto’s joy like it was a meal. “Well, seems nothing can really go back to the way it was before I went into the crystal.” 

“Don’t say that, Noct!” Prompto brought the bird onto his lap, frowning at the other man. “Because if you say that, it means we can’t go back, and-”

Prompto shook his head, taking a deep breath in. Only Noctis could make him feel this way, overwhelmed and helpless. It wasn’t a bad thing, but after ten long years of desolation and despair, Prompto had thought he had lost this part of himself. 

  
“We can’t go back to the way it was, though.” Noctis frowned, looking down at his lap with a sigh. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have something better. The world is different, and you’ve lived in it. I want to understand it all, and I want to do it with you by my side. Ya know-- Ever by my side, right?”

Prompto looked up, the tears threatening at the corners of his eyes. “You mean?” Prompto swallowed hard, and squeezed the plush to his chest. “You still want to be with me?”

“Duh. Why wouldn’t I?” Noctis let out a chuckle, and put his hand back onto Prompto’s lap. 

“Even after everything that happened?” Prompto nervously met Noctis’s eyes. 

“Especially after everything that happened. I had the world's weirdest ten year nap. And you know what? I realized my life would be super shitty without you.”

“Dude.” Prompto pushed back the tears and let a hand fall onto Noct’s. “I will be here for you forever.”

As they kissed once more, there was a soft throat clearing noise from the entrance of the dilapidated train car. They pulled away instantly, as if they were both children again who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. 

Ignis stood, hands crossed over his chest. He was ‘looking’ at them, as if he could see them, although there was a curve to the corner of his lips. “If you two are quite finished, I believe the Tenebrean delegation would enjoy speaking with the King of Lucis now.” 

“Hey, Iggs.” Gladio barked a laugh, pushing himself from the rusted metal hull to look at them all. “You realize these two have like, ten years to make up for, right?”

“There is a time and a place for all of it.” Ignis’s words were strict, but his tone was lighter and understanding. 

“Man! How long have you been standing there?” Noctis tried to stand, but was forced back down by the tabletop. 

“Long enough, your Majesty.” Ignis let a soft laugh escape his lips as he uncrossed his arms. “I do really think we should return to Lady Lunafreya.”

As Prompto and Noctis shimmied from the booth, Noctis grabbed the blond’s fingers, forcing them to walk hand in hand. “And for the record, Luna was in on this whole thing.”

“I am sure she was, Noct.” 

Gladio and Ignis led the way, the Kingsglaive emblem on their backs almost glowing as they walked into the sun. Noctis pulled Prompto along with his little chocobo plush. The way things were always meant to be. 

**Author's Note:**

> While this piece was not part of the physical zine, I was lucky enough to get to do a PDF exclusive piece for the zine where I collaborated with XHidaka. This piece references a scene from one of our AUs where Prompto and Noctis share a first kiss on a train before they start dating. As that fic was dear to us, it seemed only fitting to relive that scene years later but in a canon universe. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy. I appreciate all kudos and respond to all comments.
> 
> art done by Xhidaka


End file.
